Facebook certainly doesn’t mind if you’re gay, but a new rule forces users to keep what they do in the bedroom to themselves. Or at least move the conversation to Messenger.
The new content policy makes things like saying you’re a ‘top’ or a ‘bottom’ off-limits, in a move the social media behemoth says will combat content that “facilitates, encourages or coordinates sexual encounters between adults” and bars “sexually explicit language that may lead to solicitation.”
“Sex positions,” “sexual preference” and any number of other sexy umbrellas pertaining to “sexual hints” are all means for moderator intervention now.
Another common phrase you see a lot — “send nudes” — is a no-no, whether its meant as a joke or an actual request. The new rules ban “offering or asking for nude images.”
Via FB’s community standards:
“Do not post content that engages in implicit sexual solicitation, which can be identified by… using sexual hints such as mentioning sexual roles, sex positions, fetish scenarios, sexual preference/sexual partner preference, state of arousal, act of sexual intercourse or activity (sexual penetration or self-pleasuring), commonly sexualized areas of the body such as the breasts, groin, or buttocks, state of hygiene of genitalia or buttocks.”
Understandably, many users have balked at the new guidelines:
Facebook’s updated community standards are fucking WILD! Stating your sexual orientation is now literally against the rules and is seen as solicitation.
Also butts are not ok anymore either.Fuck this so much. Everything about it. pic.twitter.com/VMN1Drq9mN
— Jennifer Scheurle (@Gaohmee) December 5, 2018
Facebook has changed community standards. My strip club community watch the ads you post. Nothing can suggest “erotic dance” or even slang like “a good time”
Read the whole thing. I don’t want any one banned. https://t.co/qpdPAjRa9T pic.twitter.com/t1xPFiCntF
— CynthiaTazer.com (@Tazertazertazer) December 5, 2018
Even a Fox News reporter realized something might be amiss here:
Have #LGBT folks noticed that #Facebook updated its community standards to ban a wider range of language around "sexual solicitation"? If so, what do they think? Email or DM me. https://t.co/zfskc0NsEg
— Christopher Carbone (@christocarbone) December 6, 2018
And one user pointed out the timing of the change, so close to Tumblr banning all adult content:
with #tumblr banning adult content and now #Facebook banning all sexual innuendo in their "community standards" with #instagram likely to soon follow, what else is out there?
google plus?— Jesse DM's maniacs (@GiveMeAnAxe) December 6, 2018
A Facebook spokesperson defended the changes, which were implemented in October, to PC Mag: “This change was prompted, in large part, by conversations with our content reviewers, who told us that the sexual exploitation policy did not adequately distinguish between exploitation (e.g. ‘My ex was a slut. Look at the photos she sent me.’) and solicitation (e.g. ‘Looking for swingers. Friday at 8 PM, [name of bar]. Wear pink.’).”
The spokesperson continued: “We’ll be putting out the minutes from our policy development meeting at which these changes are discussed and adopted, and we’ll also publish updates to our Community Standards so that people can track changes over time.”
As previously mentioned, news of FB’s sexual word policing comes as blogging site Tumblr will soon remove all adult content from its platform, much to the chagrin of many LGBTQ users.
QueerTruth
Just another reason to close your FB accounts. And Instagram since it’s the same company.
Social Media needs to change. It should be a paid application at this point that is strictly private. No information on users can be collected or used. Period. No media. No business. No comments. No memes. No filters. Just individuals and their friends. (Social)
I would much rather pay a monthly fee than be a pawn for corporations. Zuckerberg and the likes need to go. They are seriously damaging the world’s psyche.
luminous
I completely disagree. Im fine with how facebook is running things i dont want a paid application whatsoever. Btw is social networking not social media. Media is news. And yes news should be more monitored.
djmcgamester
I haven’t had FB in almost a year. I do not miss it at all. Not interested in paying for social media since I suspect they won’t be any different than ad-based platforms.
Not sure how bans on sexual positions would actually work. I mean, how would they enforce it? It’s not like people won’t use some other code in its place if need be. Same with asking to send nudes since people will doubtless use other terms to convey the message.
HereIAm
Maybe it shouldn’t surprise you that I am all for measured government censorship, esp. porn and anonymous hookup, child human trafficking, prostitution and any web site that encourages cheating and kinky fetish behaviors. I find all of the above morally reprehensible and should be discouraged.
Imnotbruce
I think, HereIam, that you need to remember that because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it should be banned. Perhaps a setting to disallow that type of content from appearing in your UX…. But you and others like you who dislike adult(ish) content, (and similarly people like me, who want that kind of content, since, well, it’s actually a normal part of our lives) should not get to dictate what everyone sees. Companies like Facebook don’t like doing this because it means more work, and god forbid that happen. For some reason, our society has gotten the very idiotic idea that one size fits all. Maybe we should do away with that? For myself I feel no corporate entity should be interjecting itself into matters of deciding what is decent. As for the government touching anything other than non-consenual types of things having to do with sex, hell to the effing NO. Nor should people like you who are (facing facts) simply prudes get to tell everyone how they should live their lives. If I want to purchase sex acts from a male escort who, being an adult has chosen to sell those services without any firm of coercion, then it’s none of your business, and you can keep your dated opinion to yourself. If there is no harm being done to anyone but myself, then neither you nor the government nor anyone else should have for even a nanosecond the thought that they have a right to tell me, an adult of sound mind, how to live my life. People need to learn to keep their stupid opinions to themselves.
(composed in my phone. Please forgive autocorrect fails and other grammatical issues)
HereIAm
You may wish the government to butt out of your affair and allow you to hire a prostitute or escort for your carnal pleasure. Fine, change the laws then. But until that happens, prostitution and hiring prostitutes are illegal. I have a clear idea toward which direction I’d like this great country to move and it clearly differs from yours. Great. we all have work cut out for us. You can change the laws to suit your lifestyle and I’ll promote laws to curtail it.
scotshot
@HereIAm
`You are a enemy of the people.
Shut up.
You’re evidently very young ( and uneducated) and don’t remember when the Government did not allow the importation of books or movies they didn’t approve of. There was also the matter of interracial marriage and homosexuality. Both were against the law and people were jailed or beaten and murdered.
There are tyrannies around the world – go there, the United States is not one of those. How ignorant of you.
MarathonBoy
loolololol!! Your tears are so sweet! Self-described “queers” (1%-5% of the LGB population) are crude, promiscuous people who want to drag all LGB people down to their level. But the opposite is occurring. Your hold on LGB people and LGB culture is waning rapidly.
HereIAm
Good for Facebook to ban the unnecessary and irrelevant sexual preferences on people’s profiles. Facebook is for people to connect socially, not random sex hookup site. Get a grip.
QueerTruth
Focused censorship is no joke. You do not fully appreciate the ramifications or context.
jsmu
@HereIAm You really are a drooling imbecile. faceplant is for Zuckerf*ck to make trillions by selling out to PUTA and selling all of our data. Get a life, a brain, and an education, tool.
Doug
You don’t get it, HereIAm. This is not about monitoring peoples’ profiles (??). It’s even if it’s said briefly during a discussion. I’m on several gay Facebook pages and people mention tops and bottoms all the time… there’s no solicitation involved. This is censorship, plain and simple.
mattachinepodcast
Queerly, you don’t get it. Or how censorship works. Or how censorship marginalizes and helps destroy communities. Or, seemingly, much of anything.
Imnotbruce
I think, HereIam, that you need to remember that because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it should be banned. Perhaps a setting to disallow that type of content from appearing in your UX…. But you and others like you who dislike adult(ish) content, (and similarly people like me, who want that kind of content, since, well, it’s actually a normal part of our lives) should not get to dictate what everyone sees. Companies like Facebook don’t like doing this because it means more work, and god forbid that happen. For some reason, our society has gotten the very idiotic idea that one size fits all. Maybe we should do away with that? For myself I feel no corporate entity should be interjecting itself into matters of deciding what is decent. As for the government touching anything other than non-consenual types of things having to do with sex, hell to the effing NO. Nor should people like you who are (facing facts) simply prudes get to tell everyone how they should live their lives. If I want to purchase sex acts from a male escort who, being an adult has chosen to sell those services without any firm of coercion, then it’s none of your business, and you can keep your dated opinion to yourself. If there is no harm being done to anyone but myself, then neither you nor the government nor anyone else should have for even a nanosecond the thought that they have a right to tell me, an adult of sound mind, how to live my life. People need to learn to keep their stupid opinions to themselves.
(composed in my phone. Please forgive autocorrect fails and other grammatical issues)
Navalator
HereIAm: Get out of the United States and move to the middle east where you belong. They love mindless dictators there. You are a scourge and pox on society. A prefrontal lobotomy is just the ticket for you.
HereIAm
I am not going anywhere and no one can make me.
cejai
you must be mad that you arent the one getting asked these questions or no one in your inbox likes you. if you dont like the content dont use it. if we all stopped using it they will crash and lose business. stop being whiners and do something about it. threaten to pull mass accounts and threaten advertisers to pull funding either way who cares we dont need facebook they need us.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
PLEASE STOP REPLY TO THIS TROLL!! YOUR REPLIES ARE ONLY FEEDING IT’S EGO. LIKE ANY ANNOYING ENTIRELY IGNORE IT AND IT WILL GO AWAY
mr guy
A more decorous age beckons, it would appear, my good sirs. Toodle pip.
frankcar1965
NO Asians!!!!
Greg
No FATS. No FEMS.
TheBigOne
Starting to look more and more like these social media sites are starting to prepare for Pence’s eventual ascent to the POTUS throne.
Blessed be.
frankcar1965
I got your big one scat breath.
Navalator
You are so right.
Greg
Blessed are the meek. Under His eye. Blessed are the fruit.
SDWEREWOLF
QueerTruth’s reply: “Focused censorship is no joke. You do not fully appreciate the ramifications or context,” is spot on. What’s next…the ability to talk about anything LGBTQ? The discussion of sexual preferences in one’s profile isn’t hurtful, nor does it promote violence. It’s alright to post pictures of assault rifles but not one’s butt? Seems like a false sense of propriety has taken over common sense at Facebook. As for Tumbler, if they simply told Apple they had a plan to address pictures/videos depicting pedophilia, this wouldn’t be an issue, either. Instead, they decided to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Doug
Thank you. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of. Facebook is on its way out, and they did it to themselves.
MarathonBoy
There is no such thing as LGBTQ. It’s LGB.
Toofie
Looks like somebody got a new name…
pharaon.em.joe
As a gay man who already has trouble finding a decent date, not everything has to be about hookups. Hookup apps (advertising as “real connections”) are really just lame hookup apps. Now i don’t believe in “facebook dating” but it doesn’t have to turn into a sex app… we have enough of those.
frankcar1965
Then don’t use it, why are you any better than anyone else, should YOUR needs be above others?
Swineshead
I got banned yesterday for responding to the “vegan animal meme”, which a lot of us are laughing at! I wrote on a friend’s timeline “All Men Are Pigs”?? and got a laughing face from him. However, Facebook’s algorithm disagreed, not only with that, but with two written challenges (I don’t think a live person monitors the latter). Years ago I challenged a post which told Obama to eat shit, and the response was “this is free speech, therefore allowed”. So, Russian bots and violence – yes…anything mentioning men or women which can be tangentially sexual – no.
jsmu
Exactly. Rubles for sellouts, violence, Na*is? Just fine.
frankcar1965
Wow oh Wow, now you can’t say butt…..but they allow the Russians free rein to post fake and antagonistic speech, close your Facebook accounts now!!!
Paul Nadolski
Another reason why I’m glad I quit FB in 2013. (For the record, I haven’t missed it even once).
CalumB
All this extra censorship is a result of FOSTA/SESTA passed by the republicans in the US as measures to prevent trafficking and to “protect” sex workers. So thank unca DonDon for all that.
ashleycackle
it was a bipartisan bill with 27 sponsors that was voted 388-25 in the house and 97-2 in the senate, with ron wyden (D-or) and rand paul (r-ky) being the only nay votes there. so no, don’t blame trump. blame the republican and democratic bourgeois machine which hates sex workers, lgbt people, women, and sexual liberation. on both sides of the aisle.
frankcar1965
Too bad Suckerberg’s mother didn’t have a back alley abortion.
Terrycloth
I’m so glad I never had Facebook and never will. Theres alot of apps that say sign in to Facebook to continue..I refuse to join a place where they already know too much already.now this ban..? This might be the last straw for some..why not combine tumblr and Facebook both banning anything sexual…move on nothing to see here…
.
Curtispsf
There’s an article in the New Yorker (or Atlantic?) which goes into pinpoint detail about how FB (and Zuckerberg and the CEO) hired a right wing troll farm to attack George Soros for having the audacity to suggest that FB was immoral and dangerous. This right wing troll farm makes Richard Nixon look like the champion of free speech. FB is not JUST a waste of time. It is a danger to democracy. I think those interested in hooking up via FB should just use words like “tip” or “bottle” to see just how many words FB could ban. I like to tip but sometimes I just reach for the bottle.
Bob3007
Hey this is what all you SJW types love, Being told how to speak what to say, how to think, you lefties love telling someone you must call he a she and him a her, its you guys who think it’s acceptable to try to make me refer to someone as they/them/theirs. Etc…you Berkeley Antifa loving pacific northwest types should relish in this. Being told how to act and behave is spot on, i for one sit back and revel in this lunacy. And it will only get worse not better as the years go on. I get to sit back and watch all this unfolding right before my very eyes and it makes me laugh.
mattachinepodcast
Ooooh, look at the cool anarchist. I wonder what they contribute to the world.
Kev57
Putin informed me that your next message is waiting in Moscow.
frankcar1965
Russian troll!!!
Greg
What are you babbling on about? How do you know what anybody “loves”? It’s the conservatives that tell people how to walk, talk, eat, sleep, drink, think. You’re acting like you’re so above it all, but you don’t even know.
DrEvel1
Am I reading this wrong? Is it now off limits to mention that I am gay in a FB post on a discussion board? Or anywhere in my profile? How about including a rainbow flag in my picture? How deep does this ban go?
Greg
You won’t know unless you try.
justyouandi
The most shocking thing I read here is when “luminous” said in his comment that news should be monitored. You might want to rethink that, luminous. You’re suggesting censorship. Who would do the monitoring?
IanHunter
Oh no. If I want everybody to know that I am a versatile leather, I’ll post it on Scruff. If Scruff still exists.
Geeker
I’m so glad I deleted my Facebook account, it’s becoming more and more obvious how underhanded and corrupt they are at their core.
Brian
The woman saying certain things are “literally” banned is literally wrong.
This discussion is a mess.
MarathonBoy
Good! The world is moving beyond the crude, pornified culture created by a clique of hypersexualized, gay urban men in the 1970s.
If you can’t conduct yourself with dignity and refrain from advertising your preferred position in anal sex, then FB will assist you to be a less disgusting person.
cejai
dont be an ass hole if you dont want to know then dont ask and grow up. Either way bye facebook you needed to end.
Creamsicle
@cejai I agree that Facebook needs to be humbled. They’ve been a giant for far too long and it’s starting to show with how much they take their users for granted.
Greg
How do you know it was a clique? Did you try to join and got rejected? One man’s indignity is another man’s fun.
batesmotel
I didn’t know people were saying top or bottom on facebook anyway. Never seen that. On grindr, yes, but not facebook.
rogue4gay
My guess is that Facebook is doing this for the same reason that Craigslist dropped personals. The new FOTSA law makes it so Craigslist and Facebook can be held legally responsible if “sex trafficking” happens through one of their services. Facebook needs a policy that credibly allows them to state they did not “knowingly engage in anything that ended up as sex trafficking”.
The real question is whether the new law makes sense? That’s a more nuanced discussion. I personally don’t believe a site like facebook or craiglist should be held responsible for how their sites are being used. But in this day and age of Russian interference in elections and fake news, I doubt that we’re going to go back to where we were before FOTSA anytime soon.
basicguy58
I seem to recall the “interested in?” qestion, as in men or women, being there in the profile setup from the beginning of Facebook. There must have been a purpose behind this question being included in the setup. I don’t believe in censorship of this kind unless the content is truly harmful, but I do believe in filters! Surely a tech giant like FB can make filtering a BIG part of the profile setup so if someone does want to see foul language, adult content, or You-Know-Who’s ugly (spellchecker wanted to use unholy! ?) face in their feed, those things could be filtered out. Then make it easy to add to the filter as needed. In a world with billions of people, you can’t lump everyone into one boat, but you can at least give them a choice as long as that choice is freely made.
girldownunder
Agree basicguy– I didn’t see this & I posted just after- lol.
Filters & blocking. That places the work where it belongs- with the persons who “claim” to be “shocked”. You know, like every GOP/evangelist picked up for soliciting?
Or hey! Maybe this is a push from those above, who just can’t help themselves (being hypocrites) and want the gov’t to take away their “toys” so they won’t be tempted?
girldownunder
What’s wrong with just allowing blocking & filters?
If things come through that you don’t want to see, just like someone who’s bothering you, you block that content or that site. Simple.
I’m really tiring of everything being set up as if we’re all 4 years old– and generally at the request of some pearl-clutching hysteric. It’s ridiculous. What IS it with the sexual hang-up brigade, anyway? See a therapist and stop imagining/stalking others.
Creamsicle
And yet they still waffle on hate speech.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Proud to say never had a FB account and never will…..
linniejr
I would like to say to everyone here, that maybe FB should hear from us about this. I hope that the administrators of Queerty are seeing this, because maybe they can help us send a message to FB. Hello Queerty Admin. is it possible you can help us contact FB or even send messages to FB through you? Please let us know something